Managing the human resources (HR) and benefits functions of an organization (e.g., a corporation) can be a daunting task. Different benefits plans and policies that the organization offers are stored in different places. Some may be stored electronically and others mechanically. Different departments can be responsible for different benefits, so that an employee has to make several inquiries to different people to obtain answers. To assist an organization, vendors have developed automated software products to centralize and automate the management of the organization's benefits programs. For example, systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,590,037, 5,600,554, 6,505,183, 6,640,216, and 6,633,859 and U.S. Patent Published Application Nos. 2002/0022982, 2002/0049617, 2002/0069077, 2002/0099659, 2002/0103680, and 2003/0101091.
For many organizations, an investment in new and unknown technology is unappealing. These organizations want to focus on what they do best and outsource human resources management to service providers specializing in that area. One survey result indicated that 72 percent of large companies surveyed outsourced at least one HR/benefits function. Human resource outsourcing (HRO) providers span the spectrum of the scope of services they provide. Some provide information technology (IT) services for the HR function, such as IT strategy, data centers, development of in-house applications, voice and data networks, and help desks. Others provide call centers for employees. Others provide transactional services, such as training and development, benefits record keeping, accounts receivable, tax services, compensation and payroll, and storeroom/warehouse administration. Others provide all of these services plus other top-level and strategic planning, such as information management, budget forecasting, risk management, and material resource planning (MRP). These service providers provide full service benefits programs outsourcing (BPO). According to another survey, in 2003, the growth in the global full service HRO market was 24%, with annualized revenues of 1.6 billion dollars (US). The amount of employees serviced by full service HRO providers was 2.6 million employees. The average total contract value for transactions for the reported HRO contracts was 215 million dollars.
There are several service providers specializing in providing the management of benefits programs and who are providing full service to these organizations. One example is Fidelity Investments of Boston, Mass. In being a full-service benefits outsourcer, Fidelity Investments provides a Web-based user interface called netBenefitsSM to assist an employer with delivery of the employer's benefits programs to its employees. The netBenefitsSM user interface allows a plan participant (e.g., employee) to access one or more benefits programs (e.g., a 401(k) plan) and obtain self-help to answer questions about the benefits programs (e.g., balance of a 401(k) plan, loan availability, and loan requirements, etc.) and self-service to perform certain transactions associated with the benefits programs (e.g., transfer funds, loan initiation, etc.).